Memory cards are known in the art and contain intelligence in the form of a memory circuit or other electronic program. Some form of card reader reads the information or memory stored on the card. Such cards are used in many applications in today's electronic society, including video cameras, digital still cameras, smart phones, PDA's, music players, ATMs, cable television decoders, toys, games, PC adapters, multi-media cards and other electronic applications. Typically, a memory card includes a contact or terminal array for connection through a card connector to a card reader system and then to external equipment. The connector readily accommodates insertion and removal of the card to provide quick access to the information and program on the card. The card connector includes terminals for yieldingly engaging the contact array of the memory card.
The memory card connector often is mounted on a printed circuit board. The memory card, itself, writes or reads via the connector and can transmit between electrical appliances, such as a word processor, personal computer, personal data assistant or the like. With circuit board mounted connectors, the terminals of a connector include tail portions which are connected to appropriate circuit traces on the printed circuit board by various systems, such as surface mount technology wherein the tail portions are reflow soldered to the circuit traces, or through hole technology wherein the tail portions of the terminals are inserted into holes in the printed circuit board for connection, as by soldering, to circuit traces on the board and/or in the holes.
Some memory card connectors are designed for receiving multiple memory cards, such as a pair of stacked cards of different types. The different types of memory cards have different sizes, different shapes and different contact arrays. For many years, a single memory card connector, such as a circuit board mounted connector, was used to receive a single type of memory card. If a different type of memory card was to be used in a particular electronic apparatus, a completely different connector had to be employed. Consequently, connectors have been designed for receiving multiple memory cards of different types. For instance, a single memory card connector may be used for receiving two different types of memory cards in a stacked array. FIG. 1 shows a memory card connector, generally designated 10, according to the prior art. The connector is mounted within a chassis 12 of an electronic apparatus. The connector is mounted on a printed circuit board 14 on a bottom wall 12a of the chassis. A front wall 12b of the chassis has an opening 12c for receiving two different types of memory cards 16 and 18. However, the prior art connector 10 still is limited to two types of memory cards without any further selectiveness. If it is necessary to employ another, third type of memory card, the entire multi-card connector 10 must be changed or replaced. The present invention is directed to solving these problems by providing a memory card connector assembly in which any number of connectors are interchangeable in the assembly to accommodate any number of memory cards.